1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical appliance equipped with a redundant battery enabled by a main power supply to charge standby cells, featuring convenience of operation at reduced cost.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With most wireless peripheral or control means, such as, a wireless computer mouse, cordless trackball, cordless keyboard, or cordless telephone set for indoor use, it is standard practice to have them equipped with a primary cell, a secondary rechargeable cell or super capacitor, or similar energy storage means to drive associated circuits, and to eventually transmit signals to receivers, in one-way, i.e., simplex, or two-way, i.e., duplex mode of operations.
A drawback of the above-mentioned cordless peripheral installation is that due to gross power consumption, charging or replacement of cells is often required, which is especially annoying when the unit is suspended or on stand by for charging to functionable power. A computer, information-enriched household electric appliance, indoor cordless telephone set, or the main unit of an electric appliance is equipped with a reception circuit which drives a reception device, or a two-way transceiver device or has an A.C. or D.C. power supply which drives other interface devices. The power can be provided by the main power supply to a computer, information-enriched electric appliance, indoor cordless telephone set or electric appliance, or alternatively, indirectly from wired peripheral devices powered by the main power supply, such as a receiver or a keyboard or other wired peripheral device. The power source is connected to a power supply interface which supplies the load with power and, as an additional feature, charges one or more sets of batteries through ports PO in or on the main unit of a computer, information-enriched household electric appliance, indoor cordless telephone, other electric appliance, or notebook computer or monitor; or alternatively, in the form of one or more sets of redundant rechargeable batteries and ports P0xe2x80x2 installed on a wired peripheral device such as a keyboard or receiver set attached to a cord assembly, or in the form of one or more sets of redundant rechargeable batteries and ports P0xe2x80x2 on cordless peripheral equipment, wherein the power source is the main power supply.
The redundant battery and port P0xe2x80x2 for charging purposes according to the invention may be installed as a redundant set on the casing, receiver, keyboard, or other wired peripheral device associated with an electric appliance, or in or on a computer unit, an information-enriched household electric appliance, an indoor cordless telephone set, or installed into a cordless peripheral so that the main power supply can be supplied with low voltage D.C. or be in an A.C. line voltage which converts to a D.C. source through transformation and rectification to feed a redundant battery through a port P0xe2x80x2, or peripheral circuit. Power is provided to one or more sets of redundant batteries for charging purposes through a port P0xe2x80x2, which optionally resides in or on the main casing, monitor or receiver, so as to charge in turn the redundant energy storage device ESD101xe2x80x2 which consists of a secondary cell or super capacitor coupled thereto. The main power supply may further be coupled to a power supply interface serving as input to the cordless peripheral via the power supply output interface, to regulate the charging voltage and charging with respect to the energy storage device ESD101 in a cordless peripheral device, as well as actuation of control in the cordless peripheral device, or actuation of the emission circuit T101 or two-way transceiver RT101. Furthermore, the same battery and port P0xe2x80x2, of the one or more sets serves as redundant equipment for charging purposes. When required, the battery serves as an redundant energy storage device ESD101xe2x80x2.